The Space Between
by TheZorker
Summary: Shepard and Legion ? after the destruction of the Reapers


I awoke.

It was completely dark. I couldn't see anything. I was clearly not in my cabin on the Normandy, I wasn't lying in my bed.

I stood, my muscles, so recently sore from battle were simply numb. They barely responded to my brain's commands.

I had to find something. The dark was complete and oppressive. There had to be a light somewhere.

There. Ahead of me. I could see it, a small flashing light. A blue light, like on a fire detector. I stumbled towards it. Any light a welcome refuge in this darkness.

It was a Geth. As my eyes grew accustomed to the small light provided by the Geth's headlight. I saw the flicker of the N7 logo on the chestplate. "Shepard-Commander," it greeted me.

That wasn't possible. Legion was dead, or at least the synthetic equivalent. It had given up sentience, so soon after receiving the gift, in order to give the gift to the entire Geth race. "Legion?" I warbled. My voice was cracked. My throat was dry, as if from disuse. Memories began to trickle into my brain.

It nodded to me. "Welcome, Shepard-Commander."

"Am I dead? Is this a dream?" I remembered everything up to shooting that conduit. That damnable conduit. Even that was cloudy.

"No data available," it told me.

"I... I am sorry, Legion." What I had done was beginning to come back to me in full. I had shot the conduit. I had sacrificed every synthetic in the galaxy to stop the Reapers.

"Do not be sorry, Commander. I knew the cost of allowing the Geth sentience. I embraced that cost. They will remember me."

"No, Legion, not for that."

It cocked his head, looking almost like a cat. "Why are you sorry, Shepard-Commander?"  
"I destroyed them, Legion. I destroyed them all." I told him everything. I had to. He deserved it, damn it.

"Did you feel that you had to make a choice?" he asked me. If there was judgment in his voice, rancor, I did not detect it. "You did not have to fire the crucible."

"So many resources had gone into building it. It was our best chance. You're... you're not wrong. I could have refused him. It would have felt like I was giving up. I couldn't do that. I... I had to be sure."

"I agree. The possibility exists that the war could have been won conventionally, the Reapers are not indestructible. The probability was small. I do not wish to calculate it." It paused. "And you are the Shepard-Commander. I do not believe you know how to give up."

I grinned. I had to. It sounded so funny, but he was right. I was never one to give up.

"You could have controlled them – then ordered them to self destruct."

I sighed. "Could I have? I don't know. With that sort of power, would I have not convinced myself, like the Illusive Man would have, that the power could not be wasted? That I needed to told onto it. That is great – absolute – power. Humans given ultimate power have shown to always abuse. It ultimately corrupts."

"That you make that argument is exactly why you could have taken it," Legion told me.

I shook my head. "If I had taken that option, I could never have made that argument."

"What about Synthesis?" Legion asked. "Remove all Organics from the equation. Reapers cannot even falsify themselves purpose."

"You, of all people, should know better than that. Organics and Synthetics must be free to find their own path. Maybe transhumanism is in our future, but that's for people to decide on their own. I cannot force that decision on other people." I sighed. "I know that I am mortal. I know that one day I will die. I do not want to live forever."

"Momento Mori," Legion agreed. "You did what you had to do. I agree. Destruction of Synthetics, with the Reapers with them, was the only possible option."

"That doesn't mean I don't feel bad about it. Your sacrifice was for nothing!"

"You are practicing benign anthropomorphism again, Shepard-Commander. I would have died with the rest of the Geth on Rannoch; or with the rest of the Geth with the activation of the Crucible," Legion said. His voice was still dispassionate. "The Reapers still threatened the Geth regardless. Had you not fired the Crucible – the Geth would still have fallen to the Reapers. Feel instead that you saved everyone that you could. Blame the Reapers – not yourself."

"And the Catalyst was wrong in the first place. Synthetics are not doomed to conflict with Organics. I saw your memories! The Quarrians attacked you, not the other way around." I could feel anger and sorrow threatening to overwhelm me. "Free will is chaotic, I agree with that. But we have it – and that means we can choose not to fight."

"Human history suggests that slaves will always fight enslavement. Do you agree?"

I nodded. "Maybe you would have revolted. Maybe the Quarrians would have let you find your own path. Who is to say." I certainly wasn't.

"We were enslaved to the cruel, illogical sentience of the Reapers," Legion told me. "People with free will will always rebel against that."

We looked at each other, silently, for several minutes.

"Will Organics remember the Geth?"

"I am sure of it. I know they put EDI's name on the remembrance wall on the Normandy. She is among the fallen. They were about to put my name up..."

Legion looked at me. His voice was still even, but he spoke as if whispering. "How do you know that, Shepard-Commander?"

How did I know that?

How the hell did I know that?

I knew it. I know I knew it... But... how did I

I awoke.

In the rubble.


End file.
